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CAREERS AT BOF: PROJECT MANAGER – CONTRACT POSITION

Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) is seeking an energetic and motivated leader with a collaborative style who empowers and motivates others, to fill the newly created 3 year contract position of Project Manager.

Black Opportunity Fund aims to dismantle the impacts of systemic anti-Black racism in Canada by building a sustainable pool of capital to support Canada’s Black communities. This is achieved by allocating resources to Black-led community organizations leading initiatives that impact the quality of life in the Black community and facilitating access to capital for Black-led businesses to drive economic empowerment throughout the community.

REPORTS TO: BOF Manager of Programs

JOB SUMMARY:

Reporting to the BOF Manager of Programs, this position will be responsible for the day to day management of two (2) multi-faceted programs aimed at supporting the growth and development of Black Canadian entrepreneurs. This critical role will oversee the creation maintenance and monitoring of project plans, project schedules, budgets, and expenditures; as well as monitoring and reporting on performance metrics. The ideal candidate possesses a strong background in managing complex projects as well as an understanding of entrepreneurship.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Working in a dynamic, team-based environment, the Project Manager’s primary responsibilities will involve overseeing the development, launch and evaluation of two (2) multi-faceted programs aimed at providing capacity building to Black Canadian entrepreneurs. The position will be responsible for:

  • Determine and define project scope and objectives
  • Predict resources needed to reach objectives and manage resources in an effective and efficient manner
  • Prepare project budgets based on scope of work and resource requirements
  • Track project costs and expenditures in order to meet budget
  • Develop and manage a detailed project schedule and work plan
  • Provide project updates on a consistent basis to various stakeholders about strategy, adjustments, and progress
  • Manage contracts with vendors and suppliers by assigning tasks and communicating expected deliverables
  • Utilize industry best practices, techniques, and standards throughout entire project execution
  • Manage and monitor project progress by: tracking activity, tracking deadlines, resolving problems, publishing progress reports, and making adjustments as needed;
  • Managing client deliverables as they relate to funding agreements
  • Organization of, and participation in stakeholder meetings;
  • Preparing presentation materials for meetings;
  • Maintaining comprehensive project documentation in line with service level agreements;
  • Communicate regularly with relevant stakeholders, staff, clients, and committees to provide status updates and a high level of customer service around short and long term project goals and deliverables.
  • Performing other duties as required.

 

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, business, or a related field
  • 5-8 years of project management and related experience
  • Project Management Professional (PMP) certification preferred
  • Strong familiarity with project management software tools, methodologies, and best practices
  • Experience seeing projects through the full life cycle
  • Proven ability to complete projects according to outlined scope, budget, and timeline
  • Proficiency with accounting software, spreadsheets and data management systems required;
  • Ability to juggle multiple tasks and priorities, in a fast paced, diverse environment;
  • Experience in data management and administration with a relational database system;
  • Strong logic, analytical and problem-solving abilities.
  • Solid planning and organizational skills with high attention to detail, accuracy, protocol and deadlines.
  • Experience building and managing program budgets.
  • Excellent writing ability that is clear, concise and analytic in style.
  • Exceptional presentation and facilitation skills,
  • High level of discretion in maintaining confidentiality of sensitive materials and issues.
  • Language proficiency in both English and French preferred

 

PERSONAL SKILLS

  • High level of ethics and integrity
  • Driven by a passion to support and grow community
  • A collaborative team player
  • Deep understanding of historic systemic barriers to opportunities faced by Black and other racialized Canadians
  • Excellent organizational and leadership skills
  • Creative thinker and acts as an enabler to find innovative solutions
  • Outstanding communication and interpersonal abilities
  • Demonstrate reliability, autonomy, and a strong capacity for initiative and independent judgement in a complex organization environment
  • Well-developed emotional intelligence and political acuity
  • Deep understanding of historic systemic barriers to opportunities faced by Black and racialized Canadians.

Salary: $80,000 per annum  plus participation in BOF extended benefits program.

Employee Benefits include:

  • Extended health benefits – medical, dental, vision, mental health support, physio, massage, other specialist services;
  • Company Supplied Equipment (for remote work) – laptop, phone;
  • Non-traditional time off benefits – office closed between Christmas & New Year’s, closed Fridays in the summer months;
  • Hybrid work arrangements;
  • Opportunity to work for an organization whose mandate involves significant social impact.

Black Opportunity Fund is committed to fostering a collegial work culture grounded in diversity and inclusiveness. We strive to build a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we work in and serve.

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to info@blackopportunityfund.org

DoorDash #BlackFoodEnergy Restaurant Grant

Black Opportunity Fund is announcing a new funding opportunity to support Black-owned and Black-led restaurants with a company that shares our mission.

Black Opportunity Fund needs your help! We’re seeking Volunteer Selection Committee members to review and adjudicate applications for the program. Committee members will review submitted applications and make funding recommendations based on specific criteria and an established assessment process.

To express interest in volunteering as an adjudicator, please complete the Program Adjudication Nomination Form. You will be required to upload your resume and we would like it to indicate:

  • Why you’re interested in volunteering for this position
  • Experience working in the restaurant and/or foodservice industry
  • Language(s) spoken
  • The region of Canada in which you currently reside
  • Previous experience reviewing or adjudicating grant applications

Program Adjudication Nomination Form Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NQJ59FB

Black Opportunity Fund encourages applications from every region across Canada. If you have any questions about becoming a volunteer adjudicator for this program, please send us an email at BOFVolunteers@blackopportunityfund.org. We look forward to hearing from all of you! #BOF #WeBackBlack

BOF Recommendations on Canada’s Black Justice Strategy

As we approach the summer months, reams of data show that we can anticipate an increase in interactions between law enforcement and Black and Racialized communities. We can also anticipate an increase in retail profiling of Black Canadians, and in random stops predicated on racial profiling. We are hopeful that within the backdrop of this phenomenon, we will shortly see the release of Canada’s groundbreaking Black Justice Strategy. This is a generational opportunity by Government to develop a consistent framework to guide policy and practices to help dismantle systemic anti-Black racism in Canada’s Justice System.

Extensive national community consultations took place led by grassroots Canadian community organizations to inform the work of the Steering Committee. Black Opportunity Fund is proud to be a funder of the work of several of these organization. The Steering Committee, led by Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, was tasked with developing the framework for the Black Justice Strategy.

Black Opportunity Fund’s National Justice Working Group consulted with and provided its recommendations to the Department of Justice and the Steering Committee. BOF’s National Justice Working Group, a coalition of grassroots organizations, scholars, Elders, cultural keepers, policy specialists, youth, and members of Black communities across Canada, working in various ways in myriad disciplines, to address systemic and structural inequities in the justice system.

We have seen previous consultations, on addressing the significant disparities in involvement with and outcomes for Black and Indigenous Canadians, which have fallen short, resulting in superficial recommendations focused primarily on symptoms, including recommendations for more policing, and police training. While there is certainly a need for more and better training of law enforcement, the strategy needs to be more about upstream solutions focused on  reparatory and restorative justice for Black Communities. So we are very hopeful to see meaningful actions and strategies in the recommendations, as a result of the extensive listening exercises, and the leadership of the Steering Committee.

BOFs recommendations for Restorative and Reparatory justice for Black people in Canada, were framed around the following key urgent issues: 

A. Black people, especially Black youth, have received harsher penalties for cannabis-related offences; 

B. Culturally safe and responsive rehabilitation support for incarcerated persons, including culturally responsive and robust therapeutic and mental health supports, are few or non-existent; 

C. There is a dearth of community-responsive alternatives to parole and incarceration;  

D. Initiatives to ensure that the administrators of the criminal justice system (ie. prosecutors, parole board members, judges, etc.) better reflect Black communities, are in short supply; 

E. There is no funding to develop and implement aggressive and culturally safe social reintegration programmes for Black Canadians who are released from incarceration;

F. There is a need for coordination with other relevant departments in order to ensure a multi-faceted, comprehensive policy approach toward the development of a Black Justice strategy. 

G. Include mandatory Impact of Race and Culture Assessment Reports as part of pre-sentencing hearings for Black people found guilty of committing crimes; 

H. A Reparatory Justice Plan, with the goal of providing recompense to Black people for harm caused due to well-documented systemic and structural injustices within the criminal justice system. Recompense can be in the form of financial contributions, and therapeutic healing from historical trauma, needs to be incorporated into policy decisions;   

I. There is a lack of data collection standards to guide the gathering of race-based data in federal institutions which would enable effective measurement of outcomes.

Read the recommendations from the Black Opportunity Fund National Justice Working Group, to the Federal Government’s Black Justice Strategy, Click here to read BOF recommendations on Black Justice Strategy

 

TD’s Historic Partnership with Black Opportunity Fund

In 2021 as part of its broader efforts to dismantle barriers to equity, TD made a historic commitment to Black Opportunity Fund (BOF). TD invested $10 million dollars to catalyze BOFs vision of a society where longstanding barriers to opportunity for Black Canadians have been removed.

This commitment by TD is the largest donation by any Canadian corporation to a Black-led community organization.

But it’s not just about the money…

TD entrusted the Black Opportunity Fund with the power to decide how and where those funds would be deployed, to improve socio-economic outcomes for Black communities across Canada.

TD invested in the infrastructure of BOF, including staffing, to ensure it had a solid platform to carry out its mandate.

But there’s more…

TD has provided office space, expertise and seconded staff to Black Opportunity Fund.

And it’s a two way street. TD has relied on and welcomed the guidance and input of BOF as it continues to strive in its ongoing efforts to embed equity and to dismantle systemic racism through its own banking practices and throughout its organization. TD staff who take on secondment assignments with BOF, return to the organization with important new knowledge and perspectives which benefit TD as a whole.

Through the partnership with TD, BOF has achieved significant impact in improving socio-economic outcomes for Black Canadians, including…

Launching an inclusive micro-lending program for Black businesses who have been declined lending by Canadian banks.

Providing millions of dollars in grants and capacity building support to Black entrepreneurs as well as Black led, Black serving  community organizations.

Hosting important national convenings in key BOF mandate areas including  Health, Education & Youth, Justice, Arts & Culture, and Entrepreneurship.

Acting as a catalyst for important advocacy on issues impacting the health well being and prosperity of Black Canadians.

And so much more.

Thank you TD.

We look forward to continuing to grow and nurture this important and historic partnership.

Free Screening of Black Life: Untold Stories at The Halifax Central Library

A complimentary screening of an episode from CBC’s Black Life: Untold Stories  will be held at Halifax Central Library on Thursday, May 2, 2024 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The episode is the beginning of an eight-part documentary series that reframes the rich and complex histories of Black experiences in Canada. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion, hosted by CBC’s Information Morning Portia Clark and a reception.

Presented in partnership with the Black Life Impact Foundation, the event will feature the episode, “Claiming Space.” Directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, it is a lyrical journey through the growth of Black communities, such as Africville, the government policies that destroyed these once thriving settlements, and the residents’ resistance to systemic displacement.

The event is free, but registration is required. To attend the event, please register here.

Please click here to learn more and read the article CBC’s Black Life: Untold Stories free screening at Halifax Central Library

Black Life: Untold Stories is now streaming on CBC’s free streaming app, CBC Gem.

Black Opportunity Fund is the national community engagement partner for this initiative.

BOF & BCFC Grant and B3 Capacity Building Program

Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) is pleased to be launching a grant and capacity building program for Canadian Black-led, Black-serving, and Black focused not-for-profits, and charities (B3s), in partnership with the Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective (BCFC) which will open for applications on March 25, 2024.

This program is made possible through generous funding support from the TD Ready Commitment and the RBC Foundation.

To provide support to potential applicants and answer questions about the program, BOF and BCFC are hosting an information webinar on March 20, 2024 from 6:30 – 7:30 PM EST.

About the BOF/BCFC B3 Capacity Development Program

The BOF/BCFC B3 Capacity Building Program is an 8-month program funded by Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) and delivered by Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective (BCFC), designed to provide Black-focused, Black-led, Black-serving nonprofits and charities, with funding and capacity development support that positions them to collaborate, lead and deliver community-determined solutions that effectively address identified community priorities and needs.

This pilot initiative is made possible through funding commitments from the TD Ready Commitment and the RBC Foundation. Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) is pleased to be partnering with BCFC and delivery partners Imagine Canada, Management Advisory Services (MAS) and the International Coaching Federation, Vancouver Chapter.

This BOF/BCFC grant and Capacity Building Program is national in scope, involving the selection of twenty-five B3 organizations from across Canada, delivering initiatives in one or more of BOF priority areas, however, program funding has been secured from philanthropic organizations – United Way Halifax, and The Toronto Foundation, to prioritize the participation of fifteen B3 organizations selected specifically from three communities (Halifax Regional Municipality and East Hants; the Greater Toronto Area; and Windsor-Essex County) in the pilot.

All organizations selected will receive $20,000 in funding to allocate according to their charitable purposes, operational and program needs. In addition to this funding, organizations selected to participate in the pilot will receive coaching support from certified professional Black coaches and access to mandatory training in key areas of nonprofit management. All applicants will have access to specifically curated online resources covering relevant topics critical in building and maintaining healthy, adaptable, and community-responsive organizations.

We require a commitment from applying organizations, that individual leaders selected from the organization to participate in the program, will be allowed the required time to invest and participate in all aspects of the program fully and will include at least one key leader/ decision-maker.

The B3 Organizations must commit to approximately 4.5 hours weekly and a total of 35 hours monthly to complete the mandatory elements of the capacity-building program. The overall program consists of 75 hours of content.

WEBINAR DETAILS

To provide support to potential applicants and answer questions about the program, BOF and BCFC are hosting an information webinar on March 20, 2024 from 6:30 – 7:30 PM EST.

During the 1-hour webinar, members of the BOF and BCFC Program teams will review the program, including eligibility and adjudication criteria, and hold an open Q&A for prospective applicants to address questions.

Applications open on March 25, 2024, and will close on April 24, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST.

About BOF & BCFC

Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) is a community-led registered Canadian Charitable organization that supports a prosperous, healthy, and thriving Black Canada by challenging anti-Black racism in two ways by:

  1. Responding to long-standing underinvestment in Black communities
  2. Working nationally to strengthen collective actions by Black organizations and leaders, helping them to create new and more impactful ways to support and advocate for our community.

BOF prioritizes initiatives around education, youth, health, women and gender, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, arts and culture, housing and shelter, and food insecurity, that impact the quality of life in Black communities across Canada.

The Black Canadian Fundraisers’ Collective (BCFC) is a group of Black identifying people, rooted in the historic African tradition of Ubuntu, “I am because you are. We exist to inspire and elevate our fundraising sector as the leading advocate and thought collective for Black Canadian philanthropy.

Anchored by its purpose and guided by its belonging and freedom values, BCFC’s Black Philanthropy Fund (BPF), in partnership with Carleton University, offers the Award for Black Emerging Fundraising Professionals enrolled in the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (MPNL). The award promotes Black leadership within the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors by making education more accessible through this meaningful and impactful financial support.

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